


We Don't Deserve Dogs

by MagicalMilly



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Amnesia, Dogs, Gen, Link (Legend of Zelda) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Link (Legend of Zelda) Needs a Hug, link regaining memories, there's a lot going on for Link
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:15:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22153129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicalMilly/pseuds/MagicalMilly
Summary: Link's amnesia went beyond forgetting the Champions, or forgetting the map. He forgot *everything*Every name for every item.Every memory he ever had.Once the Sheikah Slate is fixed and he now can use the camera to relearn everything from scratch.... it really hits him how much he's lost in the fight against Ganon.Good thing the dogs are there to help him when he needs a hug.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 175





	1. Chapter 1

Hateno Village was a nice place.

He guessed.

He didn’t really have a lot to base it off of.  


Regardless, the people there were kind and smiling at him, even if they were all  _ so _ loud.

Why were they all so loud?

He slid underneath a tree, letting himself rest for a just a moment. The breeze from the ocean sifted through the leaves of the tree he was under, leaving Link with the sense of… something.

He had probably sat like this once, a long time ago. Maybe. 

He tried to think on it but instead hit a block. It was just empty. But his body was reacting calmly. It felt reassuring. But he couldn’t remember why. Was this like how he understood all different types of weapons without being able to recall learning them? Just something lost to the past?

He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from getting too far down that train of thought. There was nothing to be done about his past, so he had to keep moving forward. He had nothing of the past, nothing but the Shekiah Slate.

But…. that old child lady from the hill had done something to his Sheikah Slate. Added… features?

Rolling his body to the side, Link reached over and pulled the Slate out of its holster. The eerie orange glow from the unknown technology tugged at… something… within him.

He shook his head to refocus himself before switching the Slate on and browsing the new functions. “Camera?” he muttered under his breath. 

Opening that mode, he was amazed to see an exact copy of what was on the other side of the Slate on the screen. He gasped as the image continually changed to match what was ahead of him, as if the Slate were nothing but a window. In his surprise, his thumb swiped a button on the screen and a shutter sound was heard.

With a yelp, Link nearly dropped the Slate, narrowly catching it in the crook of his arm. With a sigh, he righted it and looked to see what that noise was. “What?” he breathed as he found an exact copy of what he had been looking at only 30 seconds prior.

_ This thing takes exact snapshots of what’s going on at that moment in time. _

With a grin, he swiped back to the camera to find something else to take a photo of. As he aimed the camera right above him at the fruit that was hanging overhead, he was shocked once more to see something pop up on the screen.

The Slate’s interface had kicked in once it focused on the fruit, with the word “apple” appearing next to the fruit in question.

“Apple.” Link read slowly to himself. 

He blinked a few times. And slowly lowered the Slate.

“Apple.” He repeated, this time with more urgency.

His eyes widened at he kept staring at the word apple, repeating it over and over to himself. Suddenly, with a gasp, Link sat up straight.

“Apple!” he belted out. 

He remembered… something. Flashes of red. Sweetness and crisp. Drinking something warm and cinnemony. Smiling to someone that was just outside of his memory.

He gave a soft smile to himself as he leapt up from where he was sitting and clamored up the tree, grasping the apple with an outstretched hand.

It was just an apple. There were dozens just around him. 

But it was his first memory. The first thing he remembered on his own.

He held the Shekiah Slate up once more and beamed.

He was really going to like this thing.

\---

He laid there for a little while longer, enjoying the ocean breeze and the shade of this tree until he started to doze off. 

Dreams and half memories fazed in and out of his mind as he rested: apples and sunshine, laughter and warmth.

The more he tried to focus on the laughter, the warmth,  _ who _ it was that was causing those emotions within him, the more he started to stir. 

His breathing had become erratic when suddenly he was jolted awake by a strong wet sensation on his face.

“What?” He freaked out, grasping for his weapon, wondering why he was laying down outside, when he saw a lumbering creature in front of him. It seemed friendly, as it was now flopping onto Link and curling into him.

Still confused, Link slowly extricated himself from the wriggling mass and was amazed to see the critter get up with him and then sit directly in front of him, tail wagging and eyes watching.

“And… what are you…?” he muttered to himself as he pulled the Sheikah Slate out once more. He pointed it towards the animal, who was still sitting very kindly in front of him, and waited for it to tell him what it was.

“Dog.” he read.

The tail wagged.

“You’re a dog.”

Stronger wagging, with some body wiggling.

“I like dogs.” he whispered to himself.

Full body wiggling.

He crouched down to pet the dog with some level of trepidation still, as the memories were right on the edge of his mind. As his hand reached out, and the dog’s snout reached up to meet it, the pieces clicked in his head.

Before he had fully absorbed what his memories had just unearthed, he was hugging the dog around it’s neck, overjoyed at the peaceful memories and so happy to have such a pure creature still alive in Hyrule.


	2. Goodnight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After everything is said and done, Link comes home.

It had been… a long day.

That was the only thing that Link could think as he crawled his way back to Hateno Village. 

Ganon had finally been defeated, Zelda was finally back in this plane of existence, the world was finally going to be able to heal.

As he entered the town proper and turned to the bridge that led to his home, he froze. 

He was done.

His journey was over.

He didn’t need to keep going.

The wood bridge shook as he slumped down and hugged one of the rope rails. 

“Today sucked.” He whispered to no one in particular. He grabbed for the Sheikah Slate and swiped through to the last picture that he had taken today.

Zelda, lying in the same place that he had woken up in all those months before. In this photo she was peaceably sleeping, Link had carefully placed her arms on top of her torso to prevent her from hurting herself when she would eventually wake up.

How long that would take? Who knows. 

It had taken him 100 years after all. 

100  _ years _ .

He shuddered once more. 

Throughout his adventure alone in Hyrule, he had done his best to not sit on the fact that 100 years had gone by. Sure, there were times when it was avoidable, but he had been so grateful to the overall mission to keep him focused on anything but the fact that  _ he had been asleep for 100 years and everyone was dead and now his one friend that was still alive was going to be asleep for who knows how long as she recovers from fighting Ganon alone for 100 years. _

He almost had collapsed himself when Zelda had. They had been chatting about what do to next, right over Ganon’s corpse, when her eyes suddenly had rolled up and she had fallen down in a pile. 

He had sworn that another friend had died, this one right before his eyes. His last link to his actual life, gone.

Thankfully, after a few minutes of panicking right there in the middle of Hyrule Field, Zelda had come to. Barely. But, barely is still not dead. She had looked him in the eyes, told him that the toll was a bit too much, and she should probably spend some time in the healing vat that he had been resting in. And then passed out again.

And so, Link carried Zelda across Hyrule, to the place where he discovered just how alone he was, just how much he had lost in an instant, and had to lay his last friend to rest. Not permanently. But… 

His brain refused to finish that thought, filling it with images of the rest of his friends, the other Champions, and their spirits wishing him luck. 

The shuddered turned to sobs. 

A moment went by, and Link numbly thought about how the people of Hateno wouldn’t like seeing their hero being so weak in the middle of town. His house was  _ right _ there. He could easily finish his pity party over there.

His desire to be a strong pillar for Hyrule overcame his desire to lay on the ground and pretend that he was one of his dead friends. And so, he shambled his way over to the door of his house.

Hand on the door, and even more memories came back of before he woke up. The Champions coming to his house, cooking their different cuisines for everyone. Having a place away from the castle and away from all the dignitaries to just enjoy each other’s company. Zelda had always loved coming to Link’s home the most, there was nothing expected of her in this doldrum town, in the house off the beaten path. 

Link missed having nothing expected of him. But… now that he had that (at least until Zelda woke up), he didn’t know what to do. When was the last time he existed without a greater purpose? Without a plan?

Once more, he had to shake himself out of his spiraling thoughts and push the door open.

The door was…. Strangely difficult to open.

“What?” 

He pushed again, it gave way a little but not all the way.

Link knew that he was extremely tired, but he felt he could open a door.

Nothing.

“MOVE DOOR!” His grief had turned into momentary rage. Why wasn’t the door working? How weak was he right now?

There was a weird noise on the other side, and, at long last, the door was able to open.

Actually, it practically flew open.

Link fell forward with the door, surprised at how it had suddenly opened with such ease and fell… on something soft?

Blinking a few times, he took a deep breath and knew immediately what he had landed on, although it made less than zero percent sense.

Why was there a dog in his house?

He removed his face from the belly of the puppy to look up and try and see how the dog had gotten in. He crawled away and turned on the lanturn on the Dining Room table and turned around.

Only to find 13 more dogs. 

13\. More. Dogs. 

What. Happened.

At seeing Link’s face, all of the dogs sprinted towards him, cannonballing into him. 

After a few moments fighting to extricate himself from this heap, he gave in. Let the dogs all say hi. Lay on him. Lay next to him. There was a lot of shared body heat on top of Link right now.

And he was… okay with that. He put a hand on the dog he had originally fallen on, and the dog snuffled closer to him, licked him on the face, and positioned himself under Link’s head.

He ended up falling asleep there.

\----

Link didn’t realize that is was possible to experience The Sacred Realm on Hyrule, and yet, here he was. He soaked in the peace of the moment, desperate to never let it end.

But, as all things do, it ended pretty suddenly. With a knock at his door, all of the dogs jumped to their feet and were pooling by the door, desperate to see who was on the other side.

Link swam his way to the other side of the ocean of 14 dogs, swept a few of the dogs out of the way with his leg gently so he could open the door without hurting them, and peered around the corner.

“Yes?”

“Oh, good! You’re back!”

“Yes? I got in last night, can I help you?”

“Oh, oh, sorry.” The man shook his head, “I hope you don’t mind. I’ve been coming by every morning and evening to take care of your dogs!”

“You know about the dogs?”

“Well, yeah!”

“One second.” 

There was a lot more fighting as Link made enough room to actually exit the house without the dogs flooding out too. 

The man laughed watching this, “Just let them all out. They don’t leave your yard and can use the fresh air.”

“Oh, uh, sure.” Link mumbled as he did just that, and unleashed the tidal wave of dogs unto the world. 

Link paused for a moment to watch all the dogs swarming his yard. A few were chasing each other, one was chasing his own tail, a few were looking for places to relieve themselves. His mind was still catching up on the fact that there were now 14 dogs running around his yard.

“So... “ Link started, turning back to the guest once more, “You said you’ve been taking care of my dogs for me.”

“Yep! Felt it was my way to help you out on your quest!”

“Thank you, I guess…” Link furrowed his brows, “This might sound weird… but how did they get into my house?”

The man laughed and scratched the back of his head, “Oh yeah, about that…” he paused, “I was just walking by one day, and I saw this dog pawing to get into your place. He wouldn’t leave for  _ nothing. _ ”

“What?”

“Yeah! And so after seeing him there a few days in a row, I decided he must have been your dog, you know? So I let him in. He sprinted right in and took a nap on your bed!”

Link just blinked in response.

“I know right! What a smart dog!”

“... Yeah.”

“Anyways, so I decided to check up on the dog while you were out, let him out a few times, brought some meat for him to eat, you know? And then the other dogs just trickled in as well over time.”

“The dogs just… showed up?”

“Yeah? You sent them home, right?”

“No. I don’t have a dog. I have no idea how these dogs got here.”

This time, it was the guest’s turn to blink, “What. These dogs just  _ appeared? _ ” 

“That’s why I’m confused.”

“Do you recognize them at all?”

Link started to shake his head, but then froze. One of them had just up to Link and nuzzled his hand. Crouching down, Link scratched the pup’s head and looked into their eyes. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“You remember them?”

“Yes.” He sighed, “Pup, you belong at the Geurdo Valley Stable.  _ How did you even get here!?! _ ”

The dog sitter joined in on Link’s incredulous tone. “You have to be kidding.”

“Nope. I befriended this dog as I was entering the leaving the Gerudo Desert, spent the afternoon after I calmed their Divine Beast with them while I rested at the Stables.”  _ And cried my eyes out at the realization that Urbosa was truly dead and was not able to pass on yet. _

“You must have really made an impression, as all of these dogs chose you!”

“I.. Guess so…” Link trailed off, recognizing the rest of the dogs one by one now.

“Well, I’ll leave you to them! Just wanted to let you know your dogs were taken care of!” He gave one last disbelieving sigh before setting back into Hateno Village proper.

“Thanks.” Link managed to call out before staring at the dogs once more.

Staring at the dog once more, checking the gender quickly, he dubbed her Urbosa before standing up and whistling for the rest of the dogs to come back in.

After the wave of dogs stampeded back into the house, he sat down in a chair, reached into his pockets and pulled out 14 pieces of meat.

Well, that got their attention.

\----

Later that evening, after letting all of the dogs swarm outside again, he sat down on his bed to try and enjoy this moment of quiet before the dogs started to swarm back in.

His eyes wandered over to the photo of all the Champions. One of the last moments with his friends before they all left him. 

The emotions from last night rushed back over him.

As his breathing sped up, he was smacked in the face again with the fact that he was alone. All the Champions were dead. Zelda was alive, but was in stasis for who knows how long. 

He had nothing left. His goal in life was completed. All of those that he wanted around him to celebrate and plan the future with were gone. He had nothing. Nothing but the realization that he was out of time, out of place, and without any chance of ever getting things back. How would he even start to survive without his orders? What could he even do next? What would his next goal be while Zelda was healing?

What was the point?

At that thought, he snapped. He tried to get up, only to collapse once more on his bed.  _ I’m too weak to even get to my weapons to off myself properly.  _ He sighed,  _ how pathetic, what’s the …. _

His dangerous thoughts were interrupted by a dog leaping on top of him. “Apple, get off.” He tried to remove the dog that had once been the stray of Hateno Village off of him.

But, just like it had all those months ago, when he had first met her, it refused to move. It flopped on top of Link and made a pointed effort to not be moved.

“Ugh, why are you such a good dog?”

Apple only made that content dog grunt and snuggled in closer. 

“You win.”

Link and Apple were soon joined by the other 13 dogs. All of which were struggling to be the one who could lick off Link’s tears the fastest.

And, while the pain was still raw at the loss of his friends, as he slowly manged to breathe under the weight of 14 dogs, he felt he would be able to figure it out. 

He had 14 new friends anyways. And they seemed determined to not let him suffer alone anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hello!
> 
> This was not a fic I was planning on adding to. But, here it is! Tbh, when I first started it, I thought about going through each of the 14 dogs and pointing out how they helped Link, but, while I really liked that, it was hard for me to figure out how to do that.
> 
> And then with my real life issues, I had a long hiatus from writing. And well, I was thinking about this fic, and I realized that this end scene was really good for me to write. 
> 
> Actually, the beginning scene of Link opening the door and the dogs swarming him, and the ending scene of him falling asleep after mourning his friends under a pile of dogs were why I wrote the first chapter at all. 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy this little addition to that dog fic. Sorry if it gets a bit deep and dark… I just have a lot of headcanons of a very depressed and sad Link who goes through Hyrule trying his best to just freaking get through it. I mean, literally all of his friends are dead, he failed his mission, and he has a lot going on. It’s going to be rough. That and losing all of his memories??? That’s A LOT.
> 
> So, let me know how you enjoyed this! Have a good one yall!

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea on my mind for a long time. 
> 
> Actually, since I started playing BOTW.
> 
> My headcanon for Link in BOTW is that he has truly lost ALL of his memories. Is having to remember what an apple is, what a stick is, what milk is, etc. And, each time he remembers something, with the help of the Slate, he slowly regains some of his emotions. As you see here, they start off as fuzzy, and as reintroducing feelings to him... but overtime he will have more and more of a concrete idea of who he is.
> 
> Also, I just have an idea of all the dogs being there for him as he has to slowly reacclimate to reality as it is, and all the heartbreaking and panic attack enducing realities that go along with that.


End file.
